Tuesday, February 12, 2013

How Is Social Media Changing Your Branding Strategy?

Social Media has taken Marketing
to a new level. New-age thinkers swear by it, and the ones who ignore it would
soon be history. It has given the local
market a gigantic platform and new mediums to reach out. We've arrived at a
stage when social media presence decides a brand’s existence, something so
unheard of just 5 years ago.

Social media has also changed the
dynamics of branding. Instead of looking at this as a threat, one ought to see
beyond the obvious to understand and appreciate the long term implications and
benefits that Social Media would offer a brand.

As though to adapt to this
revolution, Branding, which once focused on bringing forth the brand’s message
to the end-users; is now concentrating and viewing it as a two-way process.
This allows the consumers to communicate and increase the opportunity and
thereby, to own it. Business Houses have accepted the fact that it is time to metamorphose
from the age of “commercial yelling” to “commercial conversation”.

The advent of Social Media has
increased the interactions between the brand and the end users, and essentially
changed the way Business Houses view their consumers. Although the fundamentals
of brand building are untouched, the marketers have an added onus to the
traditional “etching the brand in the minds of consumers”. Social media has
forced the brands to think on additional parameters viz:

1)How
to build relationship to gain trust?

2)How
to bridge the emotional disconnect or gap, in order to stand out and gain a
decisive identity?

3)How
to nurture loyal fans?

However, social media is not to
be mistaken for brand overhaul. It merely provides a heightened platform to the
brand to better acquaint the world of your thought, leadership, identity and
product offerings. Hence, campaigns are being overhauled and strategies being
revised to incorporate the social media facet to brand management.

Branding forms the backbone of
any product and hence it’s vital to pay meticulous attention to strategy it. Branding, however, has changed ever since the advent of Social Media. We wouldn't be wrong, if we were to say “Social Media has compelled us to rethink
-reinvent our strategies”.